Friday, August 10, 2012

One of the reasons I started blogging was having attended my very first author event...and the author was Michael Koryta. I left the event so excited and really needed to TALK to people about it. So, I wrote a blog post. The rest is history.

This week I saw Michael again, in the same room of the same library where I first heard him speak seven books ago. I still walk away from events with that same excited feeling. These days, I have Twitter and Facebook, so I can spit out little tidbits as the event progresses, but it's still very exciting and fun to me.

For this event, I had an added bonus and that was the addition of my good friend George Litchman. George and I went to school together for many years and we both came to know Michael through different directions. Small world. But George interviewed Michael at Rocky River Library this year and it was fun to see the two of them perform together.

Here are FIVE little nuggets from Tuesday's event that you might like to know:

1.) Michael says it's much more likely he'll return to Lincoln Perry. He hasn't been so sure in the past, but Lincoln may resurface. He's considering the possibility of a short story with Lincoln.

2.) Writing as a career has become more like a "job" for Michael with each additional book he writes. Not because he has lost any of the passion for writing, but because of the management/upkeep of the books in the backlist. He spends much more time on the phone and emailing about business-related stuff than he ever did before.

3.) His favorite color is blue.

4.) Michael originally started The Prophet before Cypress House and Kent was just a minister/preacher. He was about 100 pages into the story and threw it out because it wasn't working. I guess every story has its time.

5.) The next book Michael will publish deals with forest fires, a hit man and survival training. Yikes!

I'm rather stoked about the collector editions of Michael's Little, Brown books that will be out. I've seen the cover for The Prophet and no matter what, I'll be getting The Ridge. But I'm sure I'll have more to share with you on those things when they're closer to fruition. In the mean time, I'm so thrilled to have Michael here today for the Five on Friday feature. I'd like to claim to be his biggest fan, but I know he has many. So I will merely tell you I admire this young man - he's a wonderful person - and I love his writing - boy is he talented! My fellow crime fiction fans, Michael Koryta....

1. A place I’ve never visited but would like to is: the Arctic. The polar ice cap. I’d love to get out in one of those truly remote areas that are melting away even as I sit here and type, an endless expanse of ice and snow and wind. It’s always seemed both fascinating and terrifying to me.

2. If I could sit next to anyone (not related to me) on a cross-country flight, it would be Charlize Theron because she might require a leg massage. Cross-country flights are dangerous, and I’d be willing to help her circulation, because I am a gentleman.

3. The best car I ever owned was: I’m going to have to give a nod to my pickup truck even though it is in no way the nicest car I’ve owned, but it was the best because it once hauled two hybrid wolf dogs away from probable euthanasia and they are now doing well in a sanctuary. I would not have been able to fit them in the trunk of my car, so the 2010 Ford F-150 gets the win due to the presence of wolves.4. The fictional character that most reflects my personality is: Mr. Thundermug. And if you don’t know, then you need to buy the book to find out.

5. The #1 item on my bucket list right now is:
Write a better novel. Honestly, that’s always
going to be #1, how boring! There are countless places I’d like to see and
things I’d like to do. Learn how to fly a plane. That’s a good one. Knock it on
up the list!

I'm sure one of these days we're going to be reading a book about a pilot because Michael needed a reason to learn to fly! The three pictures at the beginning of today's post come, of course, from Tuesday's event. The final two are Michael's contribution to the post. The first is a hiking trip and the second is the wolf truck.

You can stay up to date on what's going on with Michael via his Facebook page, his website and newsletter, and his blog. Michael regularly tolerates my hair-brained blog ideas and schemes, so I send my warmest thanks to him for never getting frustrated with me. I hope you all have enjoyed his responses today.

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